1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for maintaining a recording head of a recording device that ejects, from a nozzle of the head, a droplet of ink toward a recording medium and thereby records an image on the medium, such that the recording head is separate from a remaining portion of the recording device.
2. Discussion of Related Art
When a recording head is not used, or before the recording head is attached to a recording device after the head is manufactured, the recording head may be maintained separate from the recording device. For instance, the recording head can be charged with ink or a suitable liquid. Drying or leakage of the ink or the liquid is prevented by air-tightly sealing, with a sealing member (e.g., a cap) formed of an elastic material such as rubber, a nozzle-defining surface of the recording head that defines one or more ink ejection nozzles, as taught by Japanese Patent No. 3,324,629 or its corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 5,805,181A.
More specifically described, the above-indicated document teaches selectively using a monochromatic-image recording head or a full-color-image recording head, mounting the recording head selected, on a carriage, and maintaining the recording head not selected, in a state in which the recording head is charged with one or more sorts of ink. Meanwhile, after a recording head is manufactured, the recording head may be subjected to an ejection test, and the head that has passed the test may be maintained in a state in which the head is charged with one or more sorts of ink, or a suitable liquid, before the head is attached to a remaining portion of a recording device.
A recording head cannot normally eject a droplet of ink unless a meniscus of the ink is normally formed, owing to its surface tension, in the vicinity of an open end of a nozzle. Thus, in the state in which the recording head is maintained, it is required that the meniscus of the ink be formed at the normal position and that the nozzle-defining surface of the recording head be air-tightly sealed.